Does the Smart Forfour fail the MOT on road wheels more than it should?

The Smart Forfour records 0.21 road wheels failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 0.33 expected for a car of the same age mix: about as expected for its class and age (the difference is within its interval or under 0.5 items per 100 tests) (−0.12, 95% interval −0.15 to −0.09). It ranks 323 of 516 models on road wheels (1 = most failures above expected).

Data release dvsa-2024-v2 (24 Sep 2026) · page updated 30 Sep 2026 · all models on road wheels · check a Smart Forfour by registration

What exactly fails on road wheels?

The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the Smart Forfour is “A wheel with a loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud”, recorded 189 times in 2019–2024.

Smart Forfour: most frequent road wheels defect wordings, 2019–2024 (30+ items each)
DVSA defect wording	Items	Per 100 tests
A wheel with a loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud	189	0.14
A wheel badly distorted or wear between wheel and hub at spigot mounting	72	0.05

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 136,129 (initial tests) · Method: failure items (major and minor) grouped by DVSA's defect tree; wordings with 30+ items · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV

If a Smart Forfour gets a road wheels advisory, how often does it fail next time?

0.8% of Smart Forfour MOTs with a road wheels advisory were followed by a fail in the same group at the next MOT, typically 12.7 months and 5,783 miles later (985 advisories followed).

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 985 (advisories followed) · Method: the same vehicles followed to their next ordinary MOT · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV

Does the Smart Forfour fail the MOT on road wheels more than it should?

What exactly fails on road wheels?

If a Smart Forfour gets a road wheels advisory, how often does it fail next time?

Related pages

Other pages for this model